


5 times the Inquisitor was unhappy to be married (and one ... or two times she was not)

by AnnieTheMouse



Series: that blessed arrangement [2]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Inquisitor & Dorian BFFs Forever, Inquisitor & Dorian Pavus Friendship, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 15:55:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26740243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnieTheMouse/pseuds/AnnieTheMouse
Summary: It's one thing to come up with a cunning plan for how to invade Tevinter and thwart her former friend with her best friend.It's another to live through it, and everything it requires.
Relationships: Dorian Pavus & Female Trevelyan, Female Inquisitor/Cullen Rutherford, Iron Bull/Dorian Pavus
Series: that blessed arrangement [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1946260
Kudos: 18





	1. Prologue

Going from all out action to forced recovery is quite the switch of pace. 

"Not to mention going from one hand to two” mutters the voice in her head that sounds suspiciously like Dorian.

The problem is she has no time to do anything but stew over the revelations and to think about what is coming. The end of the world. Potentially. (She may also be being dramatic, potentially.)

But still. It’s a problem. And Evelyn is good at solving problems in unique ways. When the idea comes to her, it first sounds crazy even to her. But after some scheming, and some definitely against any medical rules discussions with Leliana and Josephine, she knows it would work. And that unexpected is exactly what they need to throw Sola... the Dread Wolf off guard.

She just has to convince her best friend to do something he swore he would never do.

Can’t be that hard, right?


	2. Honeymoon

She’d already talked this over with him before she even proposed it. She’s headstrong, but that had seemed unfair even for her. But there’s a difference between talking about it in abstract as a plan. And there's a difference between in the near future, and the night before you’re leaving for another country with your ‘husband’ and without well …. your husband. 

Leaving so fast that well, as Sera had joked, people might think there's a reason they're skipping the honeymoon.

Cullen’s been there supporting every step down the road, but she’s watched him get quieter and more pensive as the process has drawn out. Tonight, with the reality of what tomorrow brings, it’s both surprising, and also once she thinks about it not so surprising, that she can’t find him anywhere when she turns away from the table at their last group planning session.

She should stay, there is still some last minute details to go through, but Josephine smiles at her sadly, and shakes her head. “Go. We’ve got this. You even let Dorian go for tonight, why should you be different?”

The fact that the difference is that Bull had always known this separation was coming, that this was always going to be in the plan before she had the greater plan - and had already, for a brief interlude, been reality to them - well, that goes unsaid.

She finds him in the courtyard, with Pup. The fact that he’s sitting on the same threshold where she’d promised him forever is surprisingly painful. Had that only been a few weeks ago? 

It seems impossible that they had gone from such highs, such hope in such a short period of time. They were going to get past this crazy council, and escape just the two of them for the short period that hey could get away with, to be just them until the next trial. 

She’d thought she’d have longer before breaking her promise. But then she’d thought she’d have longer for many things.

“You should take him with you” he says, nodding at Dog, and she can’t help the gasp that escapes her. “He can protect you” Cullen continues, even as his fingers curl against a furred ear, his gaze turned downward still. 

“He can protect you” she responds, sitting beside him, leaning into his shoulder. 

“You’re more important” he responds, and she’s not sure if he means to the world or to him, but in either case she won’t let that be. Hand cupping his cheek, she forces him to look at her, and although his gaze is pained its still loving, and she had thought this through but maybe she hadn’t thought it through enough.

“I need to know you have him.” she tells him. “I need you to know that you still have me.” He shudders, but his gaze does not waver.

He’s never not followed her lead before. She trusts that as she leans into him, as she turns her face to his, tilts up towards his gaze. And although he may be disappointed right now, he never disappoints her, and his lips are a warmth she does her best to imprint in her mind.

In this moment, she truly regrets the choice she's made, no matter how much she knows it's the only one that will work.

“Come on” he finally says when he pulls back. “Let’s see if I can give you that honeymoon tonight.”


	3. Boredom

The thing is, she’s The Inquisitor. (she hears the capitals in her head as she thinks it, and laughs at herself).

But it’s true. 

The fact that right now, her role involves her being in the background makes sense in her plan, but it’s so not what she’s become used to. At his house, with his mother. At the Magisterium. And even here, at these parties. She is secondary, and even to those who acknowledge what she is and what she has done, the majority are still ignoring her. And although the girl before the mark would have found it laughable, she actually really hates it.

It’ll be useful, she knows. It’s the plan, she knows. She’d even found them amusing at the beginning.

She doesn’t find them so now. The latest tactic has seemed to be to attack Dorian’s known ‘proclivities’, not by insulting which would give room to take offense and fight back, but instead by sending those they think will tempt him. She sees Dorian’s back go up every time, knows the barbs that are hiding behind these offers, barbs aimed at them both.

The latest, he admits quietly in her ear as they see him heading over, is someone that in his foolish youth he had definitely played around with, and they had held it over him then. They’re trying to do the same now. Except this guy is not at all subtle, and his latest line, about finding some ‘entertainments’ for them, she can’t help the laugh that springs from her at how bad it truly is.

“You don’t think Dorian needs to be entertained?” She’s sure he’s trying to do a sensual purr, but it’s just grating.

“No, I just think Dorian has far better taste than that.” she responds, allowing herself to look as bored as she feels most days. For once it’s an advantage - when she’s not just bored, but annoyed. She’s been playing their game far too long, playing the polite background figure. She’s tired of it, and here, at least, with this pathetic man … well, maybe it’s safe enough to let it go for once.

“Because he married you?” the riposte is arched, telling, knowing. Dorian Pavus may be married to a woman, but this man knows from experience that his tastes differ. She considers playing the dutiful wife, considers sticking to the rules she had originally made, but Dorian looks as tired of this all as she is, and that is what makes her break.

“No, because I know the type he goes for and you don’t measure up. Literally.”

The gesture she makes is intentionally obscene. It may hint at the comparative anatomy of a man who is confident enough to go with the name ‘Bull’. Not that she knows what that would be exactly, but she knows her proportions and it’s definitely more than this man child is trying to tempt her friend with.

Dorian blushes the tiniest bit, but he also laughs, bright, free, way too uncontrolled for this type of party, for Tevinter. In other words, pretty much perfect.

Her grin is vicious at the man as he finally backs away, the eyes of the entire party on his failure thanks to Dorian's amusement. 

“Making a scene?” she asks him, smirk in place, back a little less up. Boredom a little bit assuaged - for now.

“You started it” Dorian retorts. “Now lets go get a drink. Think you've earned it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One thing I thought about the plan to 'hide' in plain site in the Tevinter, when I wrote the first one, is that the Inquisitor would have to step back, at least publicly.
> 
> That has to be quite a switch from being the person in charge. Whether you liked it at the beginning of the Inquisition or not, you would have gotten used to it, and I feel it would be hard to switch off.
> 
> Plus I wanted to make a dick joke.


	4. Chapter 4

The fact that she’s been bored while living two lives is probably a sign of something. Admittedly, right now, she really shouldn't be feeling bored as she makes her way through the back alleys of this city, makes her way towards the slaveyards.

Dorian, Maevaris and the Lucerni in the Magisterium are the visible, visual part of this endeavour. To destroy the reliance on slavery, on cruelty in Tevinter. A cruelty that she knows the Dread Wolf is exploiting to gain followers.

(she agrees with him on the issues, even if she doesn’t agree with him on his plan for handling it)

This, her main role, her original plan, is part of the less public side. Her role as Dorian’s wife is so visible, intentionally so, that no one is really paying attention to what she’s doing outside of it, no matter her history - it’s a bit insulting, to be honest, but it’s helpful. The fact that she’s learned from some of the sneakiest people - and in one case, not quite a person - on the planet? Has not seemed to have crossed many people's minds mind.

But there is more to the Lucerni then the faces in the Magisterium. There is more to this cause then politics. There are ex-slaves. There are soporati who have seen their loved ones taken, or just have a moral centre that they’ve never been able to speak about. There are many who have a heart, or grudge, who will join them.

She’s spent a lot of the money she had gained as Inquisitor, through Dorian, to free slaves through more conventional, more public means. But she’s been fighting for so long now, she doesn’t know of any way to live without it, and maybe it's wrong - but it's effective.

One of their group that has helped her lay this plan is waiting in the alley for her, his knife wet with the blood of the guard they hadn't been able to bribe, the first line of defense taken care of. But being a trader, especially of people, it comes with a lot of paranoia and therefore a lot of layers of protections. Therefore at the end, it’s her that has magic enough to break the wards he's paid a pretty penny on, to break the door before anyone notices, to silence the trader who thought he was safe from the vengeance of people who might want to harm him for what he does.

People like her, she supposes.

Murder in the dark is not something he expected to happen, and she sees his eyes flicker with fear, and then recognition - of her, or of the power that is pulling his breath from his lungs, “This is not how a mage fights” the man sputters with his last breath, and she knows what he means. Here in Tevinter, they're all about the duels - public, showy, not hidden in the dark. It feels so futile, taking out one or two people vs. the entire infrastructure for this horrible business. A public demonstration would make more sense.

But she’s supposed to be keeping a low profile, and she’s not allowed to set the world on fire anymore. Not even the people who truly deserve it.

Not only because it would be less effective, she knows, then what they are doing publicly, but because she knows that the Wolf could use that against her. She has no doubts he knows some of what she's doing, some of how she's changing things, but as long as he doesn't know everything she has on the go, maybe she can stay ahead of him.

She, and their future plan, is much safer if she keeps under the radar. Leliana had told her that at the beginning, and she knows it’s right. She can’t change the world her way this time, with nothing but words and magic and the ever crackling power of the void.

No matter how much she may want to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one got a little darker than I was originally thinking this story would go, I must say.


	5. Chapter 5

There’s a difference between knowing something is the plan and having it happen. She always forgets that.

She forgot it again until he shows up. She’s been expecting them - the delivery, the planning - but she’s not been expecting HIM. Krem is who she's waiting for really, wanting to see his face, wanting to see some good come of this all - of Dorian's machinations, of her research, of their joint hope - but before she can find him, there's someone else in the way.

Shaved head, scraggly beard, mismatched armor - but still her Cullen underneath. She hadn’t let herself realize how much she missed him, she hadn’t realized how much it would mean, but here he is, her surprise, and her arms are around him before she can even think about it.

Oh, and his arms are so strong, and his body so warm, and she's missed this so much. She'd barely had a chance to have this, before. Kisses on the battlements when duty allowed. Careful and measured and never enough. And then she'd chosen to give herself even left, for the sake of the cause. For the sake of the world, instead of herself, yet again.

It’s a weakness, she’s been told, caring so much. It’s a weakness, she’s told herself, missing him so much. There is too much for to be done.

But for this moment, propriety and subterfuge and fake marriages aside, she can just throw herself into his arms. Feel the care of his embrace, ignoring the others around them that greet the new arrivals, begin to help unload the wagon where the next items in their plan.

Hell, she even misses Krem's reunion, because that was important - but still not as important as this, the feeling of her true husband's arms around her, his lips at her throat, soft words in her ear.

She’d like to linger here forever, but then she sees it, in the corner of her eye. Dorian, sharply turning, slowly making his way from this area where the bustle and the noise and the happiness bubbles over. Making his way down the hall, away from everyone, towards his room. Alone.

She’s breaking his heart, she knows, with nothing more than being happy. He will never tell her this, he won’t blame her for this, but she’s doing it anyway. With a sign, she leans back, lips soft on the roughness of Cullen’s

“Go” he tells her, and of course he understands. 

She broke his heart too, after all.

There is too much to regret, even if this is right, even if this is the only way they could think of. And as she makes her way towards his room to check in on Dorian, she feels the weight of it all coming down on her again.

And as she crawls into his bed and holds him, she makes him promises that she truly hopes she can keep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This directly relates to the epilogue of the first story, so may not make as much sense without it (though hopefully works ok on its own?)

**Author's Note:**

> I will admit that this side may be more pensive, but I'm going to try and not make the most of the 'unhappy' truly sad.
> 
> But yeah. That Cullen/Inquisitor marriage in that romance line was definitely the one thing that made this choice the hardest to figure out how to work.
> 
> (thank goodness for friends in high, Divine, places)


End file.
